Your Fault
by BOC42
Summary: Janeway and Chakotay stuck in the turbolift. Just silly fluff.


Your Fault

All rights to Paramount. As always, I own nothing.

=/\=

Janeway stifled a yawn and turned away from Chakotay so he wouldn't see. It didn't work.

"Dammit," he growled at her, stifling his own yawn, "if you yawn one more time…"

"_Please_ tell me you'll send me to bed without dinner," she pleaded.

"I was thinking more along the lines of manually recalibrating the hull plating on Deck six, actually," he retorted. "This is the last time you get me to volunteer to take the night shift so the junior officers can have some 'bonding time.'"

"_You_ came up with the idea," she said, swatting at him with a padd. "_You_ were the one who said there were a lot of frayed nerves and squabbling going on, and _you_ were the one who suggested a few days playing Parrises Squares instead of working night shift. This is _your _fault."

He grumbled audibly and pressed a few buttons on their center console, winning the chess game. "That's two in a row you've lost now," he told her, gloating slightly. "And _you _were the one who volunteered _us _to cover all three of those shifts, Kathryn."

At that moment, the turbolift doors opened behind them and Tuvok, Tom, and Harry spilled onto the bridge.

"Good morning," Tom said a little too brightly. "Enjoying the night shift?"

Janeway gave a reasonably good death glare, and hoisted herself out of her seat. "I just lost two out of three chess matches to Chakotay, if you must know," she said.

Tom gave Chakotay a goofy grin, but got back only an exasperated, tired stare in return. "She lost on purpose," he informed Tom.

"No, I didn't," Janeway insisted. "Tuvok, the bridge is yours, I am going to get some sleep." She jerked her head and Chakotay followed her to the lift.

"I estimate that you have been awake for approximately twenty-six hours now, captain, and the commander for twenty-seven. I suggest you get some rest before your next shift."

Harry chuckled. "That's right, you two have one more night shift before this is all over."

"Believe me, Harry, I'd trade you a week's worth of rations to take it," Chakotay said with a tired grin.

Harry beamed back at him and shook his head. "No, sir. I'm afraid the captain would beat me at chess."

Chakotay gave a half-hearted laugh and followed Janeway into the turbolift.

"Deck three."

Janeway sagged against the wall, pressing her palms to her eyelids. Two seconds later, the lift shuddered and abruptly stopped. She stumbled sideways slightly into Chakotay, who caught her by the shoulder.

She slapped at her combadge. "Janeway to bridge, what just happened?"

Tuvok's smooth voice did nothing to placate either of them when it answered. "I apologize, captain, commander. The turbolift system appears to have overloaded due to a power surge from the holodecks. We are working to correct it, but it will be at least thirty minutes."

Everyone on the bridge heard the two muffled slaps that followed, with a dual muted, "this is _your _fault."

More audibly, Janeway sighed. "Thanks, Tuvok. Janeway out."

Chakotay rubbed the bridge of his nose. "And we were so close."

Janeway stared blankly at the ceiling panels for a few seconds before snorting a laugh. "Stuck in a turbolift. Classic."

"Two cadets stuck in a turbolift," Chakotay supplied.

"Did you ever get 'stuck?'" Janeway asked slyly, looking at him sideways.

He smiled. "No. There was one girl I definitely wouldn't have minded getting stuck with, though."

Janeway laughed. "Oh?"

Chakotay leaned against the wall tiredly and smiled at her. "Hafiza Krishnan. She had the most beautiful long black hair. What about you?"

She shrugged. "No. Let's just say I wasn't bothering to think about boys while I was at the Academy."

"You strike me as the type to be consumed by her studies."

"Yes, mostly."

There was a pause as Chakotay shifted his shoulders to both brace against the rounded wall. "I did catch a couple of cadets making out in a turbolift when I was a lieutenant."

"What did you do?" Janeway asked curiously, tipping her head.

He shrugged. "I closed the doors and walked away. We weren't doing anything important, and they'd been staring at each other for weeks. I figured I'd cut them a break."

Janeway touched his shoulder. "You're a hopeless romantic at heart, aren't you?"

"Maybe."

"How many people have you caught on _Voyager_?"

He smiled and looked at the door. "A few. I usually don't say anything. You?"

She shook her head. "No. I'd love to though, just to see their reaction…"

"I'll try to set something up for you."

Janeway laughed and rested her head against the lift, eyes closed. "So cadets and crewmen make out when they're stuck in a turbolift -" she trailed off.

Chakotay turned to look at her. "What is the command team supposed to do?"

She opened her eyes and gave him a wry smile, slipping her hand into his. "That's easy." She slid down to the floor of the lift, tugging him along. "We take a nap."

He laughed outright as he moved onto the floor beside her, and she easily curled up to his side and rested her head on his shoulder. "That sounds like the best idea _you've _had all week, Kathryn." He kept his hand linked with hers as he settled against her, finding her closeness, warmth, and scent both soothing and electrifying.

She was asleep within two minutes. He relaxed and drifted off after her, thinking that somehow, taking a nap in the turbolift with Kathryn Janeway was light-years better than making out with Hafiza Krishnan would have been.

=/\= Forty minutes later =/\=

B'Elanna wasn't exactly sure what to expect when she and Seven finally managed to get the turbolift functioning again. For some unknown reason, the majority of the lifts had been fairly easy to repair, but this one had not been. She and Seven had crawled from Engineering to Deck three, forced the safety doors open, and manually repaired it. She guessed that Chakotay and the captain had been stuck for pretty close to an hour now, and was a bit afraid to face them.

Yet when the lift doors slid open, she found herself raising a hand to keep Seven from speaking. Chakotay and the captain were out cold, resting comfortably against each other. The captain was nestled into his shoulder, his head tipped against hers. Interestingly, Chakotay was also holding the captain's hand.

A smile found B'Elanna's face and she turned to Seven. "Let me see that padd," she whispered.

Seven raised and eyebrow but obliged. B'Elanna tapped a message into the padd, slid it onto the floor of the lift, and closed the doors. Then she set the doors to only open with a command authorization, and sent the lift down to a lower deck where it was unlikely to be needed.

"I fail to understand," Seven said bluntly.

B'Elanna grinned at her. "It's an old joke from the Academy," she explained. "Getting stuck in the turbolift with a person you like."

Seven tipped her head. "A somewhat compromising situation?"

"Right. Except…it usually didn't involve taking cat naps."

"Does this constitute a compromising situation?"

B'Elanna laughed and scratched her head. "I don't think so. Still…maybe don't talk about it, all right?"

"Although you will no doubt inform Lieutenant Paris and Ensign Kim as soon as possible."

The engineer shrugged and started away from the lift. "They already knew they were stuck in there; they're going to ask."

"And yet you are afraid of what Commander Chakotay will say to you?"

"I can handle him, it's the captain I worry about."

"You think she will be uncomfortable knowing that you and I saw her?"

B'Elanna grinned over at Seven, something she did not usually do. "Lets just say you know her better than I do. Do _you _think she would be uncomfortable?"

Seven strode beside her in silence for a few moments. Then, "Yes. I believe she would constitute her behavior as unprofessional."

"Then don't say anything."

"Agreed."

=/\= Twenty minutes later =/\=

Chakotay woke up to pins and needles shooting up his right arm, the one that was pinned under Kathryn's shoulder. Instinctively, he flexed his fingers, trying to get blood flowing properly again. The movement awoke Kathryn, who fell sideways across him as she did. He caught her with his free arm, pushing her upright.

She blinked and looked at him blearily. "How long have we been here?"

He stretched his back. "Judging by how dead my arm is…"

"Sorry." She reached out and squeezed his shoulder, trying to work the blood back into it. "I forgot that's not exactly comfortable for the man."

He chuckled. "You have some experience with that, do you?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "So do you."

"Maybe."

She shifted away from him, and her foot connected with something on the ground. "What's this?" She reached over and picked up the padd. "You didn't have this with you before, did you?"

"No." He leaned in and read over her shoulder. "_Chakotay – caught you. –B_."

Janeway swung her head around to look at him. "Do you mean to say B'Elanna fixed the turbolift half an hour ago, and didn't bother to wake us up?"

He sighed. "That's what it looks like. At least we can get to our quarters now," he took her arm and helped her to her feet and keyed in the command authorization.

Janeway scratched at her neck. "Does this mean I got caught in the turbolift with you, Chakotay?" She glanced at him coyly.

For a half a second, Chakotay considered grabbing her around the waist and sweeping her into his arms, just to be playful. As always, he settled on something much safer. "Well, the crew will talk, just like they always do. Maybe you should ask one of them."

"I'm not sure I'd get a straight answer out of any of them. But _you _could."

"Is this you volunteering me for another assignment, Kathryn?"

The lift stopped obediently at Deck 3 and the doors opened.

"Maybe," she said, sly. At the door to her quarters she threw caution to the wind and leaned casually against the door, hand on hip. "But I _do _like to know when I've been stuck in a turbolift with a man."

Chakotay gave her a smooth smile and leaned in. "Do _you _think you have been?"

Their eyes met and she gave him a crooked smile – the one she knew he liked. "I think that is definitely what the crew will say," she replied, keeping her voice low.

For a moment Chakotay tried to contain his own grin, but then decided against it and let her have the full force of his smile up close. All pretense of being semi-flirtatious evaporated and Kathryn burst out laughing in response.

He knew they were done for the evening, and even as he laughed with her, he felt his exhaustion returning.

She placed a hand on his chest, still smiling. "Tired?"

"The nap took the edge off, but I would still kill to sleep in my own bed for six or seven hours."

"Then I suppose I should let you go," she said, and Chakotay thought he detected a hint of reluctance in her voice, but maybe she was still playing.

"You're just as tired as I am," he laughed, and taking a gamble, tucked her hair behind her ear.

"Yes I am," she said slowly. "Good night, Chakotay."

"Good night, Kathryn," he smiled, resisting he urge to hug her.

She nodded and keyed the code into her door, then foisted the incriminating padd on him. "You'll want this," she winked, disappearing into her dim quarters.

The doors closed on him and he tapped the padd against his palm, still grinning. "Yes, yes I will."

=/\=


End file.
